Monday, August 15, 2016

Set the controls of the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to September 17, 1971, when this ad appeared in the Washington Star, which was what people used to refer to as a "news paper."

"Young people are pregnant," the ad declares, and at first glance it looks like a come-on for a dodgy pregnancy help center. But no, it's worse. Far worse.

We missed the episode of Mad Men where Don Draper made this presentation to a bunch of Gulf Reston executives, complete with an evocative slideshow of pictures of passersby on the Van Gogh bridge, and then drank an entire fifth of something akin to jet fuel to live with the guilt.

But we digress. Let's get to what advertisers call "the close!"

Digging the haiku-like ending there. And $200 a month in 1971 dollars ($373,950) was a small price to pay for a whopping thirteen black-and-white teevee channels back in the day. So where does the ad veer into outright comedy?